MTV Searches for ‘Jersey Shore’ Magic on the Florida Panhandle

“Floribama Shore” represents MTV’s attempt to inject life into its “Jersey Shore” franchise.CreditMTV

By Megan Angelo

Nov. 29, 2017

The year was 2009, and a new name had forced its way into the consciousness of nearly every American.

That name was Snooki.

Snooki — formally, Nicole Polizzi — was the doll-size loudmouth with the signature hair pouf on “Jersey Shore,” the MTV series that followed the antics of its volatile, tan-loving and booze-guzzling cast. “Jersey Shore,” however, came along in a simpler time for reality television. Though several competition shows like “The Voice” still register in the ratings and the culture at large, it’s hard to remember the last time more character-driven reality series made overnight stars out of everyday people — like Puck, Lauren Conrad and Jon and Kate Gosselin — and got millions of other everyday people to watch.

The reality TV genre faces battles on several fronts. There is more quality scripted programming — on an expanded number of platforms — to compete with. There are fewer subcultures and angles left to mine for inspiration. There’s the nagging ubiquity of the internet, which can spoil endings or outpace them. And there’s a news cycle that makes “The Bad Girls Club” look cordial.

For the TV networks that crave such relatively inexpensive programming, there now seem to be only two paths to unscripted success: Lean on a franchise that has earned loyal fans, or revive one that used to have them.

Nicole Polizzi, better known as Snooki (front left), was the breakout star on “Jersey Shore,” the MTV series that followed the antics of its volatile, tan-loving and booze-guzzling cast.CreditMTV

MTV, for one, is betting on the remake strategy as it doubles down on its past. In July, the network unveiled “Siesta Key,” cut from the same gauzy rich-kid mold as “Laguna Beach,” the 2004-2006 show that made Ms. Conrad and Kristin Cavallari famous. And on Nov. 27, it unveiled “Floribama Shore,” the name of which is meant to evoke “Jersey Shore,” which last gawked at its Italy-obsessed, gym-frequenting cast in 2012.

Like its predecessor, “Floribama Shore” brings together a group of young partyers living together for the summer, this time in the Florida Panhandle. “We feel like we had this huge opportunity to reinvent an iconic franchise,” said Nina Diaz, head of unscripted programming for MTV and VH1. “The question was: How do we elevate it for 2017?”

The question is a good one. “Jersey Shore,” which reached nine million viewers weekly at its peak, has not aged well. It featured violent arguments — in a memorable scene, Ms. Polizzi was punched by a man in a bar. Male cast members categorized the women they met as either down to have sex or not. Over all, the show feels at odds with the current cultural climate, so much of which concerns gender dynamics and sexual harassment.

SallyAnn Salsano, who created both “Shore” shows, agrees. That behavior “was a sign of the times,” she said. “The kids on ‘Floribama’ are different. They’ve all been through something, and they share. When you think back to the original seasons of ‘Real World,’ it was, like, Episode 7 when they finally let out these secrets. These kids, at dinner on Night 1, were sharing their deepest, darkest secrets.”

And onscreen, the “Floribama” cast members seem more earnest and vulnerable than the kids on “Jersey Shore.” In the premiere alone, they discuss experiences with a failed marriage, a miscarriage and homelessness. One of the men cries. One of the woman declares, “We’re all healing together.” Later, two of the men fret over whether the restaurant one has chosen for a date is “nice” enough.

So why attach an old, potentially fraught label to a new group that can stand on its own? “I think the brand works,” Ms. Salsano said, “because it’s the younger generation’s version of ‘Real Housewives.’”

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“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” has been one of the strongest reality TV franchises, spinning off 10 shows.CreditBrian Bowen Smith/E! Entertainment

And that’s the funny thing about docu-soaps in 2017: Bravo’s “Real Housewives,” dismissed as tawdry when it debuted in 2008, now has an air of venerability. This is a shift that has impressed even its own stars, like Bethenny Frankel, who returned to the show in 2015 after five years away. “I felt the show was embarrassing and tragic when I left,” Ms. Frankel said. “The energy of it was dirty and dark. I had just done one of my biggest Skinnygirl deals to date, and I felt that the compensation of ‘Housewives’ wasn’t worth enduring the toxicity. Now, it’s this juggernaut. As a business person, it’s a great way for me to keep myself out there.”

Bravo seems to be one of those places that still has the format figured out. Its “Real Housewives” shows constantly rank among the most-watched reality series on cable, and beyond “Housewives,” the network has five docu-series with more than two million viewers (“Below Deck,” “Below Deck Mediterranean,” “Vanderpump Rules,” “Top Chef” and “Southern Charm”). “There’s a judging quality to our shows,” Shari Levine, Bravo’s executive vice president of production, said of the network’s lasting appeal. “Our viewers are relating to our characters, but they’re also watching them and saying, ‘I would have handled that better.’”

Mr. Cohen adds that Bravo viewers don’t mind if the people they’re judging change year to year. “Our shows are like soap operas,” he said. “They survive people leaving and new people coming in.”

The model Mr. Cohen describes — a cast of familiar faces large enough to withstand a little fluctuation — is something most of the remaining successful docu-series brands have in common. The E! Network has even managed to employ this strategy with what its network president, Adam Stotsky, reverently calls “the reigning royal family of reality.” The Kardashian/Jenners, in different combinations, have been the subjects of 10 spinoffs from their mother ship show, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” — and season to season, each family member’s participation level in that series varies.

But no franchise has the ensemble strategy down like the producers of ABC’s “Bachelor” franchise. They have long assigned breakout personalities from “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” to the other show, as well as to spinoffs like “Bachelor in Paradise” and the forthcoming “The Bachelor: Winter Games,” which will include contestants from the United States and international versions of “The Bachelor.” And the star of the next “Bachelor” will be the racecar driver Arie Luyendyk, who has not been part of the franchise since competing on “The Bachelorette” in 2012.

Mike Fleiss, the creator of the series, said that he chose Mr. Luyendyk because “he’s old school — he has a job and a life and money in the bank. He’s not someone who’s crashing on couches, trying to get their Instagram thing going.”

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Bravo’s “Real Housewives,” decried as tawdry when it debuted in 2008, now has an air of venerability.CreditPatrick Ecclesine/Bravo

Mr. Fleiss’s comment flicks at what is perhaps the biggest challenge a new generation presents for the makers of docu-series: This younger cohort doesn’t make for particularly good audiences, the kind that propelled a single cast member like Snooki into single-name fame. “My teenage daughters don’t care about watercooler moments, especially in unscripted,” said Liz Gateley, who heads programming for Lifetime and who created “Laguna Beach” for MTV. “They don’t sit around like we did growing up, saying, ‘Did you see this last night?’ They watch things in small bites, and they’re not loyal to shows or characters.”

Ms. Gateley added that, while she watches “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” her kids “know the family more for their makeup lines and clothing lines.”

In other words, Generation Z doesn’t see much of a distinction between brands and people, the way Mr. Cohen does. And they don’t mind social media posturing, the way Mr. Fleiss does, because it gets to the point fast. But translating the way young people track their stars now to regular TV viewership is difficult — even within the Kardashian kingdom.

Earlier this year, E! used a series of Snapchat Q & As with Kylie Jenner to help promote her docu-series, “Life of Kylie.” Ms. Jenner has nearly 125 million followers across Twitter and Instagram and is believed to be one of the most-watched Snapchat users. But despite a barrage of promotion, “Life of Kylie” debuted to an audience of just over one million people.

The moral of that experiment: If even Ms. Jenner can’t bring fans from social to the small screen, it may be impossible for any docu-series to get Generation Z to turn, all at once, to look at a new star.

The Snooki blueprint — regular girl, no social media throng to speak of or lip kit to promote, spending long linear minutes eating pickles and lusting aloud after ‘“Guidos”— suddenly seems out of date, perhaps even to its namesake. Ms. Polizzi, these days, has a podcast, a mommy blog, 17 million followers on Twitter and Instagram and zero presence on traditional television. That is, right now. Next year, MTV plans to remake “Jersey Shore”— this time, with Ms. Polizzi and more of its original cast.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” spinoffs that members of the family have starred in. It is 10, not seven.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page AR16 of the New York edition with the headline: In Search of the Ineffable Spirit of Snooki. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe